Rimekin D&D 2024: Species Optimisation Guide

Discover the cold cousins of the flamekin and see if they fit into your next party

A Rimekin is a cold-forged cousin of the flamekin, born when fiery elementals embraced chilling logic during the Phyrexian invasion, their inner blaze turning blue and frosty. Their magic crackles with icy flame, sheathing their bodies and gear in ice, and they carry themselves with a cool intensity that sets them apart from their passionate flamekin origins.

Is a Rimekin the right species for me?

Choose a Rimekin if you want to…

You are looking for a visually distinct character
You are playing a cold themed campaign
You are looking for a species with inherent spell casting ability

A Rimekin might not be for you if…

You are looking for a species with an optimised combat ability
You are hoping for a character with an open ended aesthetic

Rimekin traits

Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Small or medium
Speed	30ft
Traits	Cold fire magic, cold resistance, darkvision
Resistances	Cold
Proficiencies	N/A
Darkvision	Yes
Innate spellcasting	Ray of Frost, Ice Knife (lv.3), Flame Blade (lv.5)
Book found in	Lorwyn: First Light

Tactics

ecl 124 ashling rimebound — A flamekin transforms into a rimekin- Wizards of the Coast

The Rimekin bring a mix of cold logic, innate spellcasting, and cold based resilience to the battlefield. They shine when used thoughtfully rather than aggressively. Here’s how to get the most from their toolkit:

You can use the following tactics when playing a Rimekin:

Cold magic skirmisher

Rimekin are kitted with a few spells that leave them able to deal with melee or ranged offense. Ray of Frost gives every Rimekin access to a reliable ranged option that slows targets, while Ice Knife is not a great spell it does have an AoE option when enemies are clustered. Finally Flame Blade (converted to cold) gives you a melee fallback, however it’s not not a great use of your spell slots, most martials will do more damage with a standard attack, and even spell casters can do more damage with a cantrip.

Overall you have tools for a number of battlefield situations, even if most of them aren’t hugely inspiring, but at least there’s some versatility.

Cold damage resistance is not a common damage type, but it is some.amount of durability

Naturally resilient

Cold resistance combined with Darkvision make Rimekin dependable explorers for cold caves, tundras, and icy planes.

Choosing a class for your Rimekin

ecl 205 ashling s command — flamekin and rimekin unite – Wizards of the Coast

Below is a rating of how well each class pairs with the Rimekin’s spell suite and resistances. Overall they are a pretty lackluster species that fail to work well with any class, but some will work better than others:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐

Monk ⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for a Rimekin

Because the Rimekin’s biggest mechanical feature is free spells at levels 1, 3, and 5, their strongest class fits are those that can:

Take advantage of more prepared spells
Lean into the cold damage theme
Value an extra ranged cantrip

Your best options are:

Wizard/Warlock/Sorceror

Spellcasters benefit from extra prepared spells and Ray of Frost is already a decent cantrip for them. The more variety a Wizard or sorcerer has the better and picking a species with an elemental cantrip bake in means you can pick other spells for more variety as you level up. Warlocks may enjoy a couple of free spell castings too.

Worst Rimekin classes

‘Worst’ is relative here – Rimekin aren’t really great for any classes, but are even less impactful on those that can’t leverage their spells.

Barbarian

Rage shuts down spellcasting, and Flame Blade is incompatible with making multiple attacks

Monk

Monks gain very little from the spell suite. They’re better off doing lots of punching.

Fighter / Paladin

Their action economy and reliance on weapon attacks makes the spells feel a bit superfluous rather than integrated.

Rogue

Rogues are all tuned around a sneak attack in combat, it’s going to be rare they could utilise the spells the Rimekin is packed with

About Rimekin

Appearance

ecl 290 ashling rimebound — Rimekin inspects its new form – Wizards of the Coast

Rimekin resemble Flamekin transformed by cold logic and frigid magic. Their bodies emit icy blue flames that chill rather than burn, coating their weapons and armor in a light coating of harmless hoarfrost. This makes them striking, eerie, and quite distinctive.
Appearance

Personality

Rimekin are not meant to be emotionless but their defining feature is logic driven thinking that is cold and deliberate. They act based on reason rather than impulse, and while they may appear detached, nothing in their lore implies cruelty or selfishness. Instead, they make decisions with a clarity born from approaching an issue with careful consideration.

How to roleplay a Rimekin

Lean into the contrast between their icy bodies and their measured intellect. Rimekin make interesting characters if you explore how logic guides their actions:

Do they evaluate threats with clinical detachment?
Do they solve party disputes by laying out the optimal solution?
Are they fascinated by emotion because it is something they detach from?
Do they maintain discipline even in battle, acting with calm, controlled precision?

Avoid the trap of playing them as cold hearted or selfish, this will lead to some repetitive roleplay over time. Logical decision making can still be compassionate sometimes even more so than emotional reactions as it avoids prejudice or resentment . Your Rimekin may appear strange to others, but their clarity can be a useful aspect to a hotheaded party.